By Simon Nare
Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has shot down suggestions that there is deliberate sabotage to prosecute apartheid era atrocities, saying there was no evidence pointing to any individuals.
Answering questions at the National Council of Provinces on the performance of the National Prosecuting Authority, Kubayi said she had gone through all the information presented to her since she became minister of that department, and she had found nothing.
The minister was adamant that there was no deliberate sabotage of cases related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and that every NPA boss since the dawn of democracy had acted in good faith in relation to the apartheid era cases.
She said if there were any guilty individuals, they would have been identified.
“Consistently members have been insinuating that there has been. Where I am sitting as the minister, I have looked at information before me, I do not have information before that says that.
“When we say 30 years down the line, and I keep on saying what point, what information do we have? You know sometimes honourable members, let’s not behave as we come from somewhere,” said the minister.
Kubayi reminded the House that when the first democratic government took over, it inherited the apartheid government’s system, and it should not be assumed that the government was to blame for those atrocities.
She said the transition of power took time, administratively and practically.
“Some of us would remember president Thabo Mbeki even alluded to say when he walked into the office as deputy president, there was not even a single paper that existed in the office.
‘Now, reconstructing all these cases, being able to go and build a solid case that can have people that can go before a court, can’t be assumed that can happen overnight. I think that is where we need to acknowledge. I do not think there was a deliberate act to sabotage,” she said.
However, if there was evidence, members of the house must come forward.
On state capture, the minister said the NPA had made important progress in responding to corruption cases, both in terms of the number of high-profile cases enrolled, and by removing the profit from crimes through the work of the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
She said that since the submission of the report to the president, the NPA has been dealing with 120 recommendations by the State Capture Commission, which are dealt with under 37 cases.
“Of these cases, 82 recommendations comprising 20 cases are still under investigation, 23 recommendations comprising nine cases are before the court, four recommendations comprising two cases have been finalised,11 recommendations comprising five cases are under consideration for authorisation,” she said.
On the state of the NPA and its performance in prosecuting cases, the minister said that compared to international caseloads, prosecutors in South Africa dealt with an average workload that was not outside the norm.
“According to currently available information, the current workload per prosecutor in the lower courts is split between the work of the District Court and the Regional Court, as the types of cases vary significantly,” Kubayi said.
“The outstanding cases per prosecutor in the district courts amount to 80 cases per prosecutor. The outstanding cases per prosecutor in the regional courts amount to 53 cases per prosecutor.
“Apart from the criminal court work, prosecutors in both district and regional courts have dealt on average with 207 decision dockets in the past financial year. The number of verdict cases finalised in the past financial year per prosecutor was in district courts 105 cases per prosecutor (and) in regional courts, 26 cases per prosecutor.”
The minister acknowledged that there were challenges in the NPA and measures were being considered to bolster the authority.
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